Baby Onesies… and how to hollow out text

Since I began using a Silhouette cutting machine, I’ve been chomping at the bit to make some baby onesies. There are so many fun ideas out there! But I’m at that age where my friends, siblings, and I had our babies long ago, and our kids, nieces & nephews haven’t started having babies yet (and we’re in no rush for them to do so! LOL), so I’ve had to wait. And wait. And wait.

No longer! One of hubby’s coworkers just had a baby boy (waves to Ms. K and Roland! :^). So bring on the onesies!

You’ll find free files below if you’d like to make your own, plus instructions on how to “hollow out” a letter to add font interest.

I’ve included a few affiliate links so you can find the products I use. Read my full disclosure here.

Onesie #2 – My mom thinks she’s in charge

I’ve supplied the Shh! Emoji for this one, but I can’t include the words in a file because I don’t have the commercial use license for the font. Not to worry. . .it’s easy to put the words together, and the font, KG Second Chances Solidby Kimberly Geswein is free for personal use at fontspace.com if you want to use the same font I did. When designing text designs like this, I type each word into its own text box so I can change text size (color, font etc, too) and move words around individually. For my design of about 4½” x 3½” most of the text is sized in the 61-72 pts range. To adjust the text size, select the text you want to resize, click on the ‘Open the Text Styles Window’ icon in the upper toolbar, and change the number in the ‘Text Size’ box.

Hollowing out a font…

You’ll notice on onesie #2, that the word ‘she’s’ has been hollowed out, or turned into an outline. It adds emphasis to she’s and interest to the design.

You need a thick font for it to work, and this font is ideal for that. To hollow out a font, I started with a large font size of 72pts (you can work with smaller sizes, just adjust the offset amount accordingly).

You should get something like this:Almost there. Now draw a big selection box around the the whole word so that all of the above is included *and* the original text, like this:Make the whole thing a compound path (to do that, with everything still selected, right-click, then choose ‘Make Compound Path’ from the list), to get this:Then fill with color and change the line color to none to see how it will cut.If you want a smaller or larger space in the middle, click undo until you get back to your original text and repeat the steps with a new ‘Distance’ number (D above). For a larger space choose a smaller number, for a smaller space choose a larger number.

Sizing…

I applied these designs to a size 12 months onesie. If you go way smaller or larger, you may want to resize the design accordingly. I’m a visual person, so to make sure my design were the right size, I printed out several copies of each, trimmed them close to the design, and auditioned them on the onesies to see which ones I liked best.

Cutting and applying the HTV…

For cut settings, I used: Blade 2, Speed 3, Thickness 4, and Double Cut turned on. Settings will vary with HTV brand and from machine to machine, so test cut to make sure you’ve got the right settings.

If you’re new to heat transfer vinyl or need a refresher on working with HTV, you’ll find all that info HERE. In a nutshell, what I did with these onesies is: I centered the design, HTV down and shiny carrier sheet up, covered it with a piece of parchment paper (a Teflon sheet will work, too), and pressed firmly with my iron for 15 seconds, removed the parchment paper and carrier sheet, covered with the parchment paper again and gave the whole thing a solid going over with the iron again.

And that’s it!

Cheers!

–Eff

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2 thoughts on “Baby Onesies… and how to hollow out text”

You’re very welcome, Katie! Our pleasure. Glad you liked them…and they aren’t too small. They looked so teeny tiny, I was sure Roland would be too big for them, LOL. All the best to your family as you embark on this new chapter of your lives.

I'm Eff...…part word/math/science nerd, Swiss chocolate fiend, and seasoned mom, always up to my eyeballs in something creative. Join me as I share what I'm working on...anything from paper crafts and vinyl to glass etching and furniture making. Most of my projects involve my Silhouette cutting machine and I share free files so you can play, too! Be sure to check out the project gallery and tutorials list.

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